Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/276

248 merchant, ‘Come, let us go and search for the old woman and hand her over to the chiefChief [sic] of the police.’ So they and the ass-man repaired to the house of the masterMaster [sic] of police and made their complaint to him. Quoth he, ‘How many old women are there not in the town! Go and seek for her and lay hands on her and bring her to me, and I will torture her for you and make her confess.’ So they went out and sought for her all round the town; and so we will leave them for the present.

Presently, Delileh said to her daughter, ‘I have a mind to play off another trick.’ ‘O my mother,’ answered Zeyneb, ‘I fear for thee;’ but the old woman said, ‘I am like bean-husks, proof against fire and water.’ So she rose and donning a handmaid’s habit, of such as serve people of condition, went out to look for some one to swindle. Presently she came to a by-street, spread with carpets and lighted with hanging lamps, and heard a noise of singing-women and beating of tambourines. Here she saw a slave-girl, bearing on her shoulder a boy, clad in trousers embroidered with silver and velvet jacket, with a pearl-embroidered cap on his head and a collar of gold set with jewels about his neck. Now the house belonged to the Provost of the Merchants of Baghdad, and the boy was his son. Moreover, he had a virgin daughter, to boot, who was promised in marriage, and it was her betrothal they were celebrating that day. There was with her mother a company of ladies and singing-women, and whenever she went up or down, the boy clung to her. So she called the slave-girl and said to her, ‘Take thy young master and play with him, till the company break up.’

Said Delileh to the maid, ‘What festivities are these in your mistress’s house?’ ‘She celebrates her daughter’s betrothal to-day,’ answered the girl, ‘and she hath singing-women with her.’ Quoth the old woman to herself, ‘O